5o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



upon the bodily life, quiet and equable when moderate, but when 

 stronger, evinced in the brilliancy of the eye, in the quickened pulse, 

 in an inclination to laugh and sing ; grief, or other depressing passion 

 has an opposite effect, relaxing the arteries, enfeebling the heart, mak- 

 ing the eye dull, impeding digestion, and producing an inclination to 

 sigh or weep." This exaggeration of the emotions, seen in many cases 

 among women, may be considered a serious factor in inducing some of 

 the most common diseases of the nervous system from which Ameri- 

 cans, in particular, are suffering. 



In his treatise on the causes of these nervous diseases Dr. Ross, of 

 London, says : "Psychical disturbances are a prolific source of disease 

 of the nervous system, and it is probable that as civilization advances 

 these causes will exercise a more and more predominant influence in 

 the production of nervous disease. The depressing passions, such as 

 fright, alarm, disgust, terror, and rage, have, no doubt, in all ages, ex- 

 erted a deleterious influence on the nervous system ; but in the present 

 day the keen competition evoked by the struggle for existence in the 

 higher departments of social life must subject the latest evolved por- 

 tion of the nervous system to a strain so great, that those only pos- 

 sessing the strongest and best balanced nervous system can escape un- 

 scathed." Of these nervous diseases, nervous exhaustion and hysteria 

 were never more rife than to-day. 



As regards the occurrence of hysteria, while it is frequently found 

 among those belonging to what we call the lower classes of society, it 

 is more frequently manifested among the more highly cultivated. A 

 French author who, indeed, speaks for his own country only, states that 

 one out of four of all females are decidedly affected with hysteria, and 

 that one-half present an undue impressionability which differs very 

 little from it. Although these statistics are too high for America, 

 they are significant as being possible anywhere, and not the less so as 

 coming from a land where, if a woman is anything, she is emotional. 



Among the frequent causes of hysteria, all writers mention the de- 

 pressing passions, such as fear, anxiety, jealousy, and remorse. One 

 says : " The chief mental characteristic of hysterical patients is an 

 excessive emotional excitability unchecked by voluntary exertion." 

 And again : " This excessive emotional activity necessarily induces 

 exhaustion." The treatment of this affection recognizes, first and last, 

 the influence of mind over body. We find that moral suasion, the em- 

 ployment of the individual in directions without herself, the cultiva- 

 tion of an intellectual purpose, of an objective quality of mind, are 

 remedies that rank with the nervines and antispasmodics in the treat- 

 ment of this disorder. 



As regards nervous exhaustion, we find that affection is almost en- 

 tirely confined to the more highly civilized portions of the community 

 — indeed, is a disease of civilization. Among the causes of nervous 

 exhaustion this same truth is manifest — that excessive demands upon 



